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The universe is basically fucked even if you do something 'good'.


AshleyAshes
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In our run of batshit crazy hours as the summer blockbusters roll out, I was hitting the McDonalds on my way to the office on a Saturday morning.  In line waiting for my disgusting 'Big Breakfast' a homeless woman in the store approached asked me if I had any change, I explained that I didn't carry cash but I'd buy her breakfast. She asked if I'd buy her a gift certificate instead, so a bought her a $50 one. I didn't know what she'd do with a $50 card.  Maybe she'd use it to some more agency in where she ate rather than relying on what homeless facilities offer or maybe she'll sell it for god knows what.  I literally earned back the cost of that card  in my first hour of work that morning, a hour that I half spent forking dried out eggs and reading news articles on my phone, and she'll still be a homeless woman asking for change. The universe just sucks like that.  That afternoon on my break, while still getting paid for the time, I went and spent $1150 on a new bed.  She was still out there somewhere being a homeless person asking for change.  It's all so fucked. 

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She might still be homeless but at least now she's $50 better off. Couldn't you say you helped make the world just a slightly better place by helping someone in need? It's not so fucked when you consider how good people can be at times.

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7 minutes ago, LadyRadarEars said:

or a nice set of clothes for a job interview if its at a really cheap place (that accepts the gift cert/card thingie.)

I'm pretty sure that McDonalds Gift Cards are only accepted at McDonalds. O.o But I just don't carry cash, it's 2016, I have cards, I really don't have change when I say I don't have it.

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You can't expect to change the world with everything you do. Just as an artist, writer or any other person can expect every piece of work to be the biggest thing.

But focus on what you did achieve. You gave her food, or possibly money to put towards other necessities.

You improved her life. You helped out a fellow human.

You did good.

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$50? Hourly? Fuck, that reminds of the days before the price of oil went to shit...

There's a guy I see outside of the convenience store I go to on a regular basis, always asks for something every time I see him. But you know what, he's a nice guy, down on his luck, and fuck it, I can spare a few bucks to help him out. Usually just wants a few cigarettes, though sometimes he asks if I can buy him an energy drink. I drove him to a place he wanted to go when it was still winter, like fuck if I had anything better to do.

Nothing wrong with helping out whatever way you can.

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Maybe it's easier said than done, but it's best not to bother worrying about things like this that you can't really change. Just be glad that you did your best to contribute - that's probably already more than you can give a lot of people credit for.

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One of the things required to obtain happiness in this life is to acknowledge that you cannot single-handedly save the world.

For every homeless person who you give the chance to eat today, 10 of them do not.

People are inherently imperfect, and as a result the world reflects that. There's always going to be people like that, people screwed by life or society and stricken by poverty. But there's nothing we can do about it, nothing except help when we can and accept this fact.

Spending your entire life being beaten down my the misfortunes of others isn't healthy, and will ultimately leave you in the same dire straights as the person you just helped.

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Sounds a lot like being a liberal, tbh. Donate to your local charities that are meant to help these people out. If that won't patch up that bleeding liberal heart of yours,  sell all your stuff and join an establishment that helps the homeless, that way you can fight to keep drug addicts and convicts off the street and in a home where 90% of them will likely remain!

 

(ps- You can't win here)

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You, to her, are an outside factor. Much like many parts of the world.

Outside factors cannot single-handedly change the direction of her life. And you shouldn't feel inclined to either. Give what you can and give her what you can offer at that time if you feel it's obliged, but remember that you'll have moments where you can help someone directly and in a much more serious and long term way.

It's not great that there's an inequity. But you can't buy a homeless person a house and watch the world change just like that.

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I make 35 bucks an hour or so and I think life is pretty awesome : >. If it helps you feel any better, just think of all the fun things you will be using your money on that your talented ass worked very hard for.

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4 minutes ago, Frig said:

I make 35 bucks an hour or so and I think life is pretty awesome : >. If it helps you feel amy better think of all the fun things you will be using your money on that your talented self worked very hard for.

Yeah, when you see how many homeless people as I do just in the few blocks I work downtown, my own income and ease in life is actually pretty disgusting.  I just sit at a computer every day, what makes me deserving when others aren't?

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14 minutes ago, AshleyAshes said:

Yeah, when you see how many homeless people as I do just in the few blocks I work downtown, my own income and ease in life is actually pretty disgusting.  I just sit at a computer every day, what makes me deserving when others aren't?

You didn't just get there, I'm sure to a degree you worked your ass off. Sometimes life isn't fair and just be thankful that it's not you. I feel sympathy for those who truly want to change their situation, but I don't think taking a good portion of my money and giving it to them is the answer (not that I'm saying you implied that or anything).

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33 minutes ago, AshleyAshes said:

Rassah says that the homeless live the easy life and that they are not to be pitied and he'd never express disgust at his own involvement in income inequality...

Yes but despite your generosity you are showing a degree of self-righteousness and bigotry about it. Can't you just be happy that you helped enrich the quality of another person's life and be done with it? Instead of coming across as "na na na na na I'm better than you and I can judge even though I don't know the full story of your predicament"?

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I remember reading an Archie comic once...

In it Archie spent the entire time wandering the streets, moping about how wrong the world is that there are homeless people begging and children playing in garbage on the streets, while he was able to enjoy a happy stable-life. It continued on this vein until his pals Betty and Jughead came along and asked him what was the matter? He explained to them what he was feeling and they simply said to him, "You know Archie, these people aren't looking for someone to join in their misery. They're looking for someone to share their happiness with them." Then the comic ended with Archie exclaiming, "You're right!" And they all went and started feeding the homeless and put on a music show for the kids.

Wise comic sometimes that Archie. <;

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5 hours ago, AshleyAshes said:

Yeah, when you see how many homeless people as I do just in the few blocks I work downtown, my own income and ease in life is actually pretty disgusting.  I just sit at a computer every day, what makes me deserving when others aren't?

You're right. Sell everything and go join your local institution to save homeless people. That or you can flaunt off the fact that you make a lot of money and woe is you for making so much of it while others don't. :< :< :<

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57 minutes ago, Mikazuki Marazhu said:

This makes me think about poverty in general.

Homeless people in the US have more support than most countries in the world yet they're still stuck in the same situation, The US spending $1,000,000,000 a year on welfare and shit like that

Well yeah, they give the money to the churches to buy food for the homeless, and how else are the churches going to afford their really fucking huge monuments to God?

st-marys-cathedral-tokyo-2.jpg

img_2214.jpg

 

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21 minutes ago, Ricky said:

Well yeah, they give the money to the churches to buy food for the homeless, and how else are the churches going to afford their really fucking huge monuments to God?

st-marys-cathedral-tokyo-2.jpg

img_2214.jpg

 

That's not a church. 

That's a show - a scam. 

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28 minutes ago, WolfNightV4X1 said:

So if we hate Rassah just because he's rich can we hate Ashley, too?

Hating rich people is a poor person forum pastime. This forum is clearly divided by wealth drama 

SO MUCH EMOTION in this one post, I don't even know what to say.

I love everyone here... as long as you aren't a church :v

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40 minutes ago, WolfNightV4X1 said:

So if we hate Rassah just because he's rich can we hate Ashley, too?

Hating rich people is a poor person forum pastime. This forum is clearly divided by wealth drama 

Its like this.

 

Option A:

I saw a homeless person on my way to work today. They looked hungry so I got them food. They wouldn't accept it so I got them a McDonalds Gift card instead. It sucks because no matter what you do, they'll still be homeless the next day.

 

Or Option B:

I saw a homeless person on my way to work today. I offered to buy thek food, but they wouldn't take it, so I gave them a $50 gift card. Even though imma make that cash back in the first hour of my 50/ hour job, I felt bad because while I'm making a lot of money, that person isn't, and they're homeless while I have to go home and just be depressed about how much money I make ._.

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2 hours ago, WolfNightV4X1 said:

So if we hate Rassah just because he's rich can we hate Ashley, too?

Hating rich people is a poor person forum pastime. This forum is clearly divided by wealth drama 

Nobody hates Rassah because he's "rich".

Everybody hates Rassah because he's a demonstrably terrible human being.

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You guys are grossly overestimating my annual income based on what I earn on a Saturday, where overtime and weekend bonus incentive rates are added on...

I assure you, I only have a middle class income, not even upper middle class, and I'd be back down to lower middle class if I had any dependents.

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World is a fucking mess, and luck plays a retardedly huge factor in where we end up. I guess be happy you were dealt a pretty good hand and could use those cards to get to where you are. Fuck knows I'm grateful for the family I was born into.

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15 hours ago, AshleyAshes said:

Rassah says that the homeless live the easy life and that they are not to be pitied and he'd never express disgust at his own involvement in income inequality...

The world is a wonderful place, full of really awesome people. It's a pity that so many don't even see that. Even those who help make the world a better place. Just take what you did as a good thing and don't moan about it.

I know that homelessness is a complicated issue. Some people had made a series of bad choices, some just can't help but be homeless no matter what help they get, and some just choose to stay homeless for whatever reason. One of my close friends (the one who got me into driving for Uber/Lyft and together with whom I bought a plane) runs a huge homeless outreach program and app, having fed over 100,000 homeless across the country, and is currently doing a huge competition between D.C. and Austin for who can feed more people this weekend. Unfortunately I feel like I can't help enough, where all I do is keep bags of socks in my car to pass out when I see someone on the street, or donate and support my friend and his organization when I can. So it's not like I am not aware of the homelessness issue. Quite the contrary. I'm more involved than someone who's only interaction is the occasional handing out of some money to a random stranger.

 

But Ashley is right that I would never express disgust at my involvement in fighting income inequality. Why would I? Though it's not like many others out there are doing anything about it. Maybe others are disgusted at those who do actually work to fight it, instead of just complaining about it on the internet, because it makes them feel inferior or insignificant?

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3 hours ago, AshleyAshes said:

You guys are grossly overestimating my annual income based on what I earn on a Saturday, where overtime and weekend bonus incentive rates are added on...

I assure you, I only have a middle class income, not even upper middle class, and I'd be back down to lower middle class if I had any dependents.

Well most us make ~10 dollars an hour at best and less than min wage at worst so...

50 dollars an hour is not something we would know about :^)

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4 minutes ago, Rassah said:

... the one who got me into driving for Uber/Lyft and together with whom I bought a plane ...

Damn near every single post I've ever read from you has some kind of plug like that in it.

It's great that you're involved with helping out people that are less fortunate, but nobody gives a fuck that you bought a plane. Fuck sakes.

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31 minutes ago, Wrecker said:

Damn near every single post I've ever read from you has some kind of plug like that in it.

It's great that you're involved with helping out people that are less fortunate, but nobody gives a fuck that you bought a plane. Fuck sakes.

I only meant it as that he's someone I trust implicitly, enough to do something like that with. The plane was only $16k, split two ways, so only $8k from each of us. It's not a big "I'm rich!" deal. Sorry if it came out that way.

Unless $8,000 is some colossal fuckton of money to you guys. I don't know.

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13 minutes ago, Rassah said:

I only meat it as that he's someone I trust implicitly, enough to do something like that with. The plane was only $16k, split two ways, so only $8k from each of us. It's not a big "I'm rich!" deal. Sorry if it came out that way.

Unless $8,000 is some colossal fuckton of money to you guys. I don't know.

That's two years of community college, or wiping out a loan for a used car/small student loan, or like, half a year's rent at a cheap apartment, among other things.

So for most of us, if the economics poll is to be trusted as accurate, would see that as a colossal fuckton of money.

I mean jesus I could go back to school and try to get my associate's again with that money, get my scooter fixed, and have like, two or three months where my rent is taken care of and I can just save my paychecks for other things, if I budget it right.

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3 hours ago, Rassah said:

Unless $8,000 is some colossal fuckton of money to you guys. I don't know.

I had just under eight grand in my bank once, then my car died and I was forced to upheave it all to buy the first affordable replacement I could.I still haven't made it all back, and this was three and a half years ago. Eight grand is definitely a colossal fuckton of money for the vast majority of us and it shows how clueless you can be to not realize this.

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It's like every day Rassah forces himself to forget that this is a forum by in large populated by underemployed and/or heavily debted millennials. O.o

But it is always super fun to see Rassah demonstrate such poor social intelligence, the he basically says 'What do you mean, 'The lower and lower-middle class can't afford their own airplanes?'.' and he is then shocked at the response.

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